Trolls of the Internet

Trolling is one of the newer internet phenomena that carry a broad definition.
According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, a troll is "a person who tries
to cause problems on an Internet message board by posting messages that cause
other people to argue and/or become angry". The act of doing as such is referred
to as trolling. But this definition is still rather narrow because trolls are not limited
to only being able to post on discussion boards and forums. Even on Youtube (a
video-sharing website), it is not too difficult to spot a troll. Just look for a popular
video and then scroll downwards to view the comments. In many cases, there
would be one or two trolls who post an insensitive and controversial remark, only
to be lambasted by many other repliers. Ironically, trolls look forward to being
insulted and degraded by other people via replies because their main reason for
trolling in the first place was to stir up emotions and anger in others.
It should be noted trolling can have even broader definition than what it is
commonly defined as. Trolling is also used by Internet users to refer to acts online
and outside the realm of cyberspace. This type of trolling, in most cases, very
mild and can be particularly humorous especially in video games. Some people
play video games online to troll other players they are playing with by acting
strangely or by impersonating famous people while chatting. Impersonations of
politicians like Obama to cartoon characters like Peter Griffin from the Family Guy
show are funny enough to get people to record their gameplay sessions and
upload the videos to on Youtube. Theses 'gameplay trolling' videos (as they are
commonly referred to) receive thousands of likes and even millions of view on
Youtube, pointing out that trolling can indeed be enjoyable to trolls, 'victims'
being trolled and viewers on video-sharing websites.

A troll trolling another player who has been defeated by dancing on the 'victims'
virtual corpse in the popular first-person shooter game, Halo 4

Public trolling is also an act (very similar to pranking) where a person acts
strangely in public in order to get peoples' reactions and the troll records it on
video. The videos are then uploaded on video-sharing websites to be viewed by
other people. Most trolls ask permission from their victims before uploading them
to video-sharing sites. On Youtube, one of the most subscribed channels on
youtube are public trolls (or pranksters, terms are interchangeable) such as
VitalyzdTV and RomanAtwood, both channels receiving more than 5 million
subscribers each.

Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, 22, a popular Youtube prankster/public troll

But the type of trolling we will be concerned about in this article is the trolling
that involves the posting of inflammatory comments on websites. This form of
trolling could lead to detrimental effects on peoples lives (the victim of trolling)
in the form of depression and anxiety.

Image widely used to depict Internet trolls

Trolling is widespread across the world though most cases go unnoticed since
most cases are unreported. However, there are still cases of trolling that have
caused enough uproar from the public to the point where the local government
was pressured to intervene.

United States of America

After the suicide of Long Island, New York high school student Alexis Pilkington,
17 on May 2010 a tribute to the teenager was set up on Facebook, with many of
her friends posting messages about how they missed her. However, a flood of
negative messages, many of them lewd, also piled up. Anonymous posters began
performing organized psychological harassment on Facebook and across various
message boards, referring to Pilkington as a "suicidal slut", and posting graphic
images on her Facebook memorial page including an edited photo of the victim
with a noose around her neck. Investigators soon found out the trolling targeted
towards Pilkington occurred even before she committed. Whether these trolls
were responsible for Alexis Pilkington's death in the first place remains a mystery.
Although police have investigated her suicide, no arrests have been made.

Alexis Pilkington had received a soccer scholarship to study at college degree

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/alexis-pilkingtonfaceboo_n_512482.html

The reason why trolling has become increasingly popular these days is because
the Internet has provided one of the most valuable resources to a troll;
anonymity. A troll does not need to post a his/her real name, location or profile
picture on his/her profile on a website (even Facebook) guaranteeing the
concealment of a troll's true identity thus ensuring no one can go after them.
Most of the time troll's can get away with hurling petty insults towards others.
But in the new millennia where internet surveillance by governments is all too
common, trolls can still be tracked by pinpointing their exact IP address which is
unique to each network access point i.e. Wi-Fi router, LAN connection. Thus, with
the IP address identified by the authorities, there has been occurrences where a
troll posts something so serious that the troll can, under law, was charged and
handed a jail sentence.

Trolls generally conceal their identity

Australia

Elliot Fletcher , age12 with his father

Trinity Bates, age 8

On June 2010 in Brisbane, two children named Elliot Fletcher, 12 and Trinity
Bates, 8 were murdered in two separate incidences on February that that same
year. Friends of the victims' families help to set up a memorial page on Facebook
for the public to express their condolences, provide support the family and for the
page to act as a tribute to the young victims. However, these pages were
vandalised with extremely offensive material including child pornography
depicting the victims. Upon seeing this, detectives set out to track down the
insensitive troll and managed to track down a 29-year old man who was believed
to have been responsible.

Police then issued a search warrant for the man's house. There they allegedly
discovered "child exploitation material". The suspect was then arrested and
charged with 2 counts of using "carriage service in a menacing, harassing or

offensive way" on top of 3 other child exploitation related charges (which carries
a maximum sentence of 10 years). Later on however, Detective Superintendent
Peter Crawford revealed to reporters that others were involved in the vandalism
of the Facebook pages, prompting further police investigation.
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/man-charged-with-defacing-onlinetributes-to-dead-children-20100604-xi2n.html

United Kingdom
In the England, a man named Sean Duffy made mockery of the testimonial page
of a teenager who committed suicide, Natasha MacBryde by calling her a 'spoiled
little b**** on a Facebook memorial page dedicated to her. The 25-year-old, who
was discovered to have Asperger's Syndrome and alcohol-addiction problems was
known to surf the internet in search of memorial pages to troll and hurt the
feelings of the victims families. As a result Sean was sentenced to eighteen
weeks in prison and banned from using social networking sites for five years.

Sean Duffy
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2036935/Natasha-MacBrydedeath-Facebook-internet-troll-Sean-Duffy-jailed.html

On July 2011 in Cardiff, UK a 25-year-old man named Jamie Counsel was arrested
under the charges of attempting to cause riots. He set up a Facebook page called

Bring Riots to Cardiff where he managed to muster support of 36 Facebook users

to target the House of Fraser department store to loot. After being arrested, the
suspect was discovered to have suffered from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD) when he was younger and had previous assault charges. Though
the Counsel's lawyer, Ruth Smith tried to convince the court that he did not
actually plan to carry out the attack and merely "trolling" he was nevertheless
sentenced to four years for trying to incite riots.

Jamie Counsel
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15756260

On October 2012, a man from Lancashire named Matthew Woods, 20 was

arrested after posting "grossly offensive" comments regarding a missing 5-yearold, April Jones. He posted "jokes" from a trolling/joke website on a support group
for April Jone's family. He was given a three months jail term for offense under
section 127 of the Communications act 2003.

Matthew Woods
Source:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/08/man_jailed_for_12_weeks_over_april_jon
es_facebook_posts/

The United Kingdom is one of the few countries that have implemented and
enforced online harassment laws in order to circumvent trolls online.
Contributions made to the Internet are covered by the Malicious Communications
Act 1988 as well as Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, under which
jail sentences are currently limited to a maximum of six months.
However, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling introduced new laws in October 2014
by implementing amendments to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill. Under these
new laws, trolls could face up to 2 years in prison, 4 times the previous maximum
sentence of 6 months. This move has highlighted the British governments
commitment to combating online harassments after the rise of social media
websites like Facebook and Twitter. It was also a timely move as the
Communications Act of 2003 was more than 10 years old and had been
implemented before the prominence of Facebook.

New laws should be implemented to curb the rise of grossly offensive trolling
Other countries should emulate the moves made by the British government. Old
laws regarding online harassments are indeed aging and becoming less relevant
as social media sites are gaining a foothold on the Internet. If we are to continue
using these aging laws and decline to make any changes to the law, many trolls
can get away with harassment, causing disharmony and even pressure people to
commit suicide. Hence, lawmakers should learn from past cases where trolling
was attributed to causing chaos online and amend laws that are tailored to
prevent trolling cases so online trolling can be curbed and controlled to a level
where no party feels seriously psychologically affected by trolls.